On Wednesday, Sept. 30th, the Design Review Committee of the Oakland Planning Commission held a public hearing on the Nautilus Group's large mixed-use project.  The project is located on Telegraph Avenue, spanning the block between 51st Street and Claremont Ave.  It is six stories high along Telegragh Ave. and 51st Street, dropping to four stories along Clarke Street, where it meets the border of Rockridge's residential area.

The cty of Oakland is proposing improvements to bicycle and walking access to the Rockridge BART station. The Transportation Services Division will host a meeting Wednesday, September 30, 7:30-9 p.m. at the Rockridge Library to present preliminary project plans and to hear comments from Rockridge residents and business owners.

The first months of 2015 were eventful for Frog Park and its work to provide a richer playground experience for all the children and families who come to the park.

Here is a short report of recent progress and a look at remaining work to be done:

The 2015 Rockridge Kitchen Tour, the original home kitchen event in one of Oakland's most walkable neighborhoods, is set for Sunday, September 20, 12:30 - 5:30 p.m.

For the advance purchase price of $40, you can tour eight new kitchens including one full-home tour. Each space is a stunning example of its kind, from impeccable bungalow kitchen restorations to grand modern living spaces. Once again, our Rockridge homes boast designs and build quality that are bold, innovative, tasteful and, sometimes, surprising.

• Keep OPD phone numbers handy.

• OPD emergency, landline: 911. (Call 777-7777, the OPD emergency line, if 911 gives a busy signal)
• OPD emergency, cell phone: 777-3211
• OPD non-emergency: 777-3333
• Fire Department non-emergency: 444-3322

• Don't leave valuables - purse, wallet, cell phone, computer, tablet - in your car or easily visible through windows in your home.

•  If you have or plan to install security cameras, make them visible as an additional deterrent.

College Avenue Safeway Project - College and Claremont Avenues: The space availability electronic sign for the parking deck remains nonfunctional. RCPC and the other two community groups have now sent Safeway and Terramar formal notice of the violations of the settlement agreement. Hopefully, the issues can be resolved without having to take Safeway to court. There are also traffic problems cropping up at nearby intersections. RCPC will be talking to the City about addressing those. If you see problems, let us know at landuse@rockridge.org.

Take a stroll by the Rockridge Temescal Greenbelt near Cavour and along Redondo, and admire the good work accomplished by the volunteers attending the DMV Neighbors Association annual June Cleanup. The crew cleared a massively weed-choked 20-yard stretch of the channel.

This summer, residents will see construction of the first projects funded through an $8 million settlement agreement with Caltrans over the environmental impact documentation of the Fourth Bore of the Caldecott Tunnel. Improvements to Broadway between Keith Avenue and Brookside Avenue - including Oakland's first cycle-track (a two-way, separate bikeway) and pedestrian crossing enhancements - are slated to break ground in August.

I think we owe Tim Caton.

It was Caton who protested to the Rockridge public after the Locksley Avenue home that he and his wife, Ruth Paglierani, have lived in and beautified over 40 years was broken into twice within a few months earlier this year.

Their burglaries were part of a string of 10 break-ins and attempted break-ins along the two blocks of Locksley between Hudson and Cavour, which Caton alerted us to on the Nextdoor listserv and that also ran as a letter in the June Rockridge News.